PSYC3030 Exam 1

Heather Lucas - History, Attention, Cognitive Neuroscience (first half)

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Describe the design of Ebbinghaus’ memory experiment.

• repeated lists of 13 nonsense syllables to himself one at a time at a constant rate and determined how long it took to relearn the list

• used a measure called savings (original time to learn the list - time to relearn the list after the delay) to determine how much was forgotten after a delay

Describe the key findings of Ebbinghaus’ memory experiment.

• smaller savings meant more forgetting while larger savings meant less forgetting

• measured behavior to determine a property of the mind

What is a “paradigm shift” in the context of science?

the shifting of a system of ideas that dominate science at a particular time

Why can the Cognitive Revolution be described as a paradigm shift?

had a shift from the behaviorist’s focus on stimulus-response relationships to an approach whose main focus was to understand the operation of the mind

What does it mean when psychologists say that the mind is a black box?

inputs (stimulus) go through an unobservable process before producing an output (reaction)

What is the difference between a cognitive process and a cognitive representation?

• processes are the various types of cognition such as perception, attention, and memory that produce representations such as letters, words, and directions

• the operations of the mind VS the results of those operations

examples of cognitive processes

• perception

• attention

• memory

examples of cognitive representations

• letters

• words

• directions

Describe how Wilhelm Wundt fits into the history of psychology.

• structuralist credited for the first psychology laboratory set up in Germany

Describe how Edward Titchener fits into the history of psychology.

• structuralist credited for the first psychology laboratory set up in The United States

• set out to categorize every sensation felt

Describe how William James fits into the history of psychology.

• functionalist credited with steering psychology into the field of cognition

• inspired a reaction against structuralism due to its scientific limitations and emphasis on representations

• published Principles of Psychology (1980)

Describe how John Watson fits into the history of psychology.

• known for the Little Albert Experiment

• showed behaviorists that classical conditioning could work on fear responses

Describe how Ivan Pavlov fits into the history of psychology.

• focused on classical conditioning

• known for the dog salivation experiment

Describe how F.C. Donders fits into the history of psychology.

• considered one of the earliest congitive psychologists

• proved mental processes can be measured and identified through observations

Describe how Edward Tolman fits into the history of psychology.

• credited for experiment of the cognitive map

What is the approach taken by structuralists to study the mind?

• rejects the idea that the mind cannot be opened or that it is a black box

• if properly trained, we could gain access to the contents of our mind

What is the approach taken by functionalists to study the mind?

• focused on what the mind’s functions served

• emphasized processes of the mind

What is the approach taken by behaviorists to study the mind?

believed that if it was not observable that it should not be focused on

What is the approach taken by cognitivists to study the mind?

• infer the processes and contents occurring inside the mind

• try to access the mind’s contents indirectly

According to structuralists, what are sensations?

basic elements of the mind that together determine experience

According to structuralists, what is analytic introspection?

technique in which trained participants describe their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli

How was introspection used to study the mind?

people could supposedly learn to identify individual sensation

What are some weaknesses of the structuralist approach?

• difficult to verify and replicate since it reported on private events

• focused on the end product of cognition, not the process itself

• emphasis on representations

Describe Donders’ reaction time experiment.

asked participants to push a button as rapidly as possible when they saw a light go on, then measured their choice reaction times by using two lights and asking the participants to push the left button when the left light turned on and vice versa

Why was Donders’ time experiment historically significant?

• considered the first cognitive psychology experiment

• proved you can identify and measure mental processes through observations

Explain Donders’ use of the subtraction method.

choice reaction time - reaction time = duration of the decision stage

What is the assumption of pure insertion?

all stages remain the same when a new stage is added

What is the assumption of additivity?

duration of all stages add together to yield the reaction time

What’s the problem with assuming you already know what the stages are?

likelihood that you don’t and there could be additional stages for the instructions of the tasks

What is classical conditioning?

pairing one stimulus with another, previously neutral stimulus causes changes in the response to the neutral stimulus

What is operant conditioning?

focused on how behavior is strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcers or withdrawal of negative reinforcers

Why did behaviorists favor classical and operant conditioning methods?

they produced observable stimulus-response relationships in behavior that could be studied

Describe the first experiment by Tolman used to document the existence of a cognitive map.

placed a rat in a maze and allowed it to explore, before placing it at Point A with food at Point B, the rat learn to turn right at the intersection to obtain the food. then, the rat was placed at point C and learned to turn left at the intersection to get to the food at point B

How did the results of Tolman’s experiment challenge the principles of behaviorism?

since the rat learned to turn left instead of its initial rewarded route (right), there must be something happening outside the stimulus-response relationships

What criticisms were leveled against behaviorism during and leading up to the Cognitive Revolution?

• limiting science to observable things is not the best idea

  • argument that unobservable phenomena are studied in other fields so why not in psychology

• difficult to account for creativity and diversity of human behavior

• certain experimental findings were difficult to reconcile w/ behaviorism

What is the computational of the mind (AKA the information processing perspective)?

the operation of the mind can be described as occurring in a series or number of stages

What role did the introduction of the digital computer play in encouraging researchers to adopt the information processing perspective?

the mind is designed to take in and process information similarly to a computer

What does it mean to say that modern Cognitive Psychology progresses by “ruling out alternative explanations”?

running more experiments

CHAPTER 4

ATTENTION

According to Lavie’s Load Theory of Attention, what are two key factors that determine how well someone can ignore a distracting stimulus?

processing capacity and perceptual load

What is processing capacity?

refers to the amount of information people can handle and sets a limit on their ability to process incoming information

What is perceptual load?

refers to the difficulty of a task

What is the dichotic listening task?

where the left ear is receiving a different auditory stimuli from the right ear

What is shadowing?

repeating the attended audio or message from the dichotic listening task

Compare and contrast Broadbent’s Filtering Model of Attentional Selection with Treisman’s Attenuation Model.

• share memory stage

• filter VS attenuator

• detector VS dictionary unit

Explain each stage of Broadbent’s Filtering Model of Attentional Selection.

1. input stage

   • the attended and unattended channels

2. sensory memory stage

   • holds the early features of both channels for a limited amount of time

3. filter stage

   • filters out the unattended message, leaving the attending message to go to the next stage and isolates the early features of the attended message

4. detector stage

   • processes the late features of the attended message, which can go into other cognitive modules as needed

Explain each stage of Tresiman’s Attenuation Model.

1. input stage

   • the attended and unattended channels

2. sensory memory stage

   • the early features of both messages are processed

3. attenuator stage

   • unattended message isn’t filtered out completely, just weakened in comparison to attended message

4. dictionary unit stage

   • contains words, stored in memory, each of which has threshold for being activated in which messages can then be processed

What predictions does Broadbent’s Model of Attentional Selection make about what information is most likely to be detected from an unattended channel?

early features from the unattended channel

What predictions does Treisman’s Attenuation Model make about what information is most likely to be detected from an unattended channel?

information from the unattended channel with low thresholds

What is overt shifts of attention?

shifting attention from one place to another by moving the eyes

What is covert shifts of attention?

shifting attention from one place to another while keeping the eyes stationary

What is attentional capture?

a rapid shifting of attention typically caused by an environmental stimulus

examples of overt shifts of attention

• scanning a painting and shifting from one subject to another

examples of covert shifts of attention

• looking at an object in the corner of your eye without moving your eyes over

examples of attentional capture

• a bird flying quickly past you and your eyes following it

• conversation being interrupted due to a loud bang behind you

Describe the Posner Precuing Task.

• a crosshair located a the center of the screen w/ arrows flashing towards the right or left of the screen

• participants were asked to push the button as soon as they saw the box flash onto the screen

How does Posner’s 3-stage “spotlight" model explain the reaction in a valid trial?

• you receive a cue and it is correct

• includes moving and engaging

• fastest reaction time

How does Posner’s 3-stage “spotlight" model explain the reaction in an invalid trial?

• you do receive a cue and it is incorrect

• includes all steps of disengaging, moving, and engaging

  • slowest reaction time

How does Posner’s 3-stage “spotlight" model explain the reaction in a neutral trial?

• you do not receive a cue

• includes all steps of disengaging, moving, and engaging

What is hemispatial neglect?

disorder that affects attention in which people have a hard time attending to a side of their visual space (typically the left side) due to damage in the parietal lobe (typically the right side)

What is inattentional blindness?

failure to perceive information that is fully visible while performing an attentionally demanding task

What is change blindness?

difficulty in changes in scenes

examples of inattentional blindness

• “look-but-fail-to-see” LBFTS driving accidents

examples of change blindesss

• flickering when an image changes slightly

What are the differences between inattentional blindness and change blindness?

inattentional blindness because the attention is disrupted and is not engaged with something previously

How do expectations affect the likelihood that intentional blindness will occur?

the likelihood increases as expectations increases

What is the “binding problem” in cognitive psychology?

questions how different features become bound together in our conscious experience

What does it mean to say that attention is a “perceptual glue”?

it binds different features in our conscious experience

Describe the preattentive stage of Feature Integration Theory.

• individual features are processed

• features are analyzed separately and exist in the mind as free floating rather than bound

• attention is not required

Describe the focused attentive stage of Feature Integration Theory.

• features are combined into objects

• free floating features are bound into coherent objects

• attention is required

Describe how object features are represented in the preattentive stage.

free floating features

Is attention required for the preattentive stage?

no, it does not require attention

Describe how object features are represented in the focused attentive stage.

features are bound into coherent objects

Is attention required for the focused attention stage?

yes, attention is required

What is the difference between parallel processing and serial processing?

• parallel processes all features of an object at the same time

• serial processes features of an object sequentially

Which type of processing does each stage of Feature Integration Theory use?

• stage 1: parallel processing

• stage 2: serial processing

What are illusory conjuctions?

perceptual mix-ups between object features due to lack of attention

How does the Feature Integration Theory explain illusory conjunctions?

features in the preattentive stage exist independently from other features, meaning attention is required for binding a combination of features in the focused attention stage

What are the key differences between performance on a feature search and a conjunction search?

• feature search can be used to locate targets with a single feature

• conjunction search required the combinations of features to locate a target

How does the Feature Integration Theory explain the differences in performance between a feature search and a conjunction search?

the kind of processing determines how long the search time takes

How does increasing the number of distractors affect reaction times for each type of search?

• feature search times increase do not increase with the number of distractors

• conjunction search times increase with the number of distractors

CHAPTER 2

COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE (EXAM 1 CONTENT)

What are some of the major functions of the occipital lobe?

• where the visual cortex is located

• intakes visual information

What are some of the major functions of the temporal lobe?

• responds to complex stimuli

What are some of the major functions of the parietal lobe?

• receives signals from the skin

• responsible for perceptions of touch, pressure, and pain

What are some of the major functions of the frontal lobe?

• receives signals from all the senses

• responsible for coordination of the senses

• higher cognitive functions like thinking and problem solving

Describe the cell body and its role in neuronal communication.

contains the mechanisms to keep neuron alive

Describe the axon and its role in neuronal communication.

• fluid-filled tube of the neuron

• transmits information to other neurons

• the neuron’s “outbox”

Describe the dendrites and their role in neuronal communication.

• branches reaching/extending from the cell body

• receives information from other neurons

• the neuron’s “inbox”

Describe the neurotransmitters and their role in neuronal communication.

• chemical released when a signal reaches the synapse

• makes it possible for the signal to be transmitted across the gap that separates the end of the axon from the dendrite

Describe the synapse and its role in neuronal communication.

• small gap between the end of a neuron’s axon and the dendrites of another neuron

Describe the action potential and its role in neuronal communication.

• electrical impulse that happens when a neuron is stimulated

• signal travels down the axon to release neurotransmitters at the end of the axon terminal

Describe depolarization and its role in neuronal communication.

• where the electrical potential across a neuron becomes more positive

• going upwards to +40MV

Describe repolarization and its role in neuronal communication.

• where the electrical potential across a neuron becomes more negative

• going downwards to -70MV

Describe hyperpolarization and its role in neuronal communication.

• where the electrical potential across a neuron becomes more negative than its resting potential

• going downwards past -70MV

Describe resting potential and its role in neuronal communication.

• no signals in the neuron

• axon remains at -70MV

Describe the concept of hierarchical processing in the brain’s visual system.

progression from feature detectors to cohesive objects from lower to higher areas of the brain

What types of visual information are processed by the early visual regions?

• lines

• edges

• feature detectors

• simple shapes

What types of visual information are processed by the later visual regions?

• faces

• objects